Germany has a lot of recipes with meat. Especially pork and beef are the favorites of the nation. Back in my childhood, that was in the 1960s, my grandparents, who lived with us in the same house, had next to the main building a barn, pig stables and a chicken coop. This little farm delivered almost everything what they needed at this time, plus they had also a garden and some fields for potatoes. Pork, Potatoes, fresh milk and eggs – what do you want more? Once a year one of the pigs was butchered; they had the local butcher coming over and he did the job. To be honest, it was not something I was crazy about, this home butchery, and I did not watch them how they made the sausages and prepared the ham for smoking and so on. Such an event was called “Metzgete” – I tried to find an English word but would not find one. So “Metzger” means “butcher”, and it is all about that. It is also offered in the restaurants in Germany’s South as a specialty. They would serve the fresh sausages and a special soup and of course the meat.

Pork roast is a classic of the meat dishes and you can find it on the menu of every good restaurant (Gasthaus). It is a dish of the “Gutbuergerliche Kueche” which means “home-style cooking”. But let’s proceed now and see how you can create this dish.

Ingredients1,5 kg – 2 kg pork (pork shoulder, or

pork neck (Nacken)

2 big onions

salt, pepper

vegetable broth (if you use powder or cubes use organic broth)

cooking oil or lardspring or purified water

How you make it

-Wash the meat thoroughly with cold water– Rub in salt and pepper

– In a big pan heat oil or lard andf fry the meat briefly but good, the pores of the meat have to close so the meat won’t dry out during the long cooking time.

– Add 1-2 tbsp oil on a baking tray (like one you would use for a turkey)

– Place the pork in the middle of the baking tray

– Peel onions and cut them in slices; put onions next to the meat– make the broth per instructions and add app. 125 ml over the onions and add 1/2 L water

-Let the pork roast bake in the oven for 3.5-4 hours by 350 degrees F. Turn the meat every 30 minutes and pour some liquid form the tray over it. Don’t let it dry completely.

Serve it either with mashed potatoes, or Knoedel (dumplings) and red cabbage plus green lettuce.